Elon Musk plans on reversing Twitter’s permanent ban on former President Donald Trump once he completes his takeover of the social media platform.
“I do think that it was not correct to ban Donald Trump. I think that was a mistake, because it alienated a large part of the country, and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice,” Musk said at a Financial Times event on Tuesday.
Musk went on to criticize Twitter’s decision to ban Trump as “foolish,” claiming the action undermined the public’s trust in the social media platform.
“Banning Trump from Twitter didn’t end Trump’s voice. It will amplify it on among the right. And this is why it’s morally wrong and flat out stupid,” Musk said.
According to Musk, Twitter should only issue permanent bans on accounts belonging to bots, spammers, and scammers. For all other accounts, the company should impose temporary suspensions on the account or make the tweet invisible when the content breaks the rules.
Musk also said his main goal with buying Twitter is to make it an open forum, but the ban on Trump has fractured the user base. He pointed to how the former US president has since created a competing social media platform in Truth Social, which has largely attracted conservative users.
“And so I think this could be frankly worse than having a single forum where everyone can debate,” Musk said.
“That doesn’t mean somebody gets to say whatever they want to say,” the Tesla CEO later added. “If they say something that is illegal, or otherwise, you know, destructive to the world, then there should be perhaps a time-out. A temporary suspension, or that particular tweet should be made invisible, or have very limited traction.”
Twitter's former CEO, Jack Dorsey, also chimed in on Musk's comments. In a pair of tweets, Dorsey said he agreed with Musk's stance on never issuing permanent bans on real users.
"It was a business decision (to ban Trump), it shouldn't have been," Dorsey said. "And we should always revisit our decisions and evolve as necessary. I stated in that thread and still believe that permanent bans of individuals are directionally wrong."
Musk plans on buying Twitter for $44 billion with the goal of reining in some of the content moderation on the social media platform. In addition, he plans on posting Twitter's source code online, allowing anyone to inspect it.
His comments on Tuesday suggest anyone previously banned from Twitter will also be able to return. However, Musk cautioned he still doesn't own Twitter, and noted the deal could take several more months to complete. In the meantime, Trump himself has said he doesn't plan on rejoining Twitter.
During the event, Musk also said Twitter's current policies suffer from a liberal bias. “I think Twitter needs to be much more even-handed. It currently has a strong left bias because it’s based in San Francisco," he said.
“I don’t think the people there necessarily intend, or at least some of them, don’t intend to have a left bias," he added. "From their perspective, it seems moderate, but they're just coming at it from an environment that’s very far left. But then this fails to build trust in the rest of the United States."